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Rubens Barrichello/2010 Season
Brazilian |team = AT&T Williams |car No. = 9 |poles = 0 |Wins = 0 |podiums = 0 |fastest laps = 0 |points = 47 |WDC Standing = 10th|helmet = }} For the 2010 season Barrichello moved to the Williams team. He was characteristically consistent, despite a tough start to the year for the Williams team. As the car improved, so too do did the Brazilian's results, with fourth in Valencia arguably more than anyone could expect from the FW32 . He became first man to start 300 Grands Prix and re-signed with team for 2011. Report On 2 November 2009, Williams confirmed Barrichello and Nico Hülkenberg as their official race drivers for the season. This meant that Barrichello would be in Formula One for at least another season, and has since become the first driver in Formula One history to compete in over 300 Grands Prix. In pre-season testing, Barrichello finished at the top of the timesheets once, because of rain. In some sessions, he was outpaced by his rookie team-mate Hülkenberg. Williams was the second team in terms of kilometres covered and showed some reliability, but are currently off pace from front-runners Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. At the first race of the season in Bahrain, Barrichello qualified eleventh on the grid, and finished tenth in the race. In Australia, he went on to finish eighth, moving him to within two points of Senna's mark. He stalled on the grid in Malaysia due to an overheating clutch, but recovered to twelfth place at the finish. In China, he finished twelfth again. In Spain he benefited from Lewis Hamilton's late crash to score two points, finishing in 9th, despite starting 18th on the grid and equalling Senna's record. In Monaco, he qualified ninth and moved up to sixth position through the first corner. Later, he had a suspension failure caused by a loose drain cover and crashed heavily. After crashing he threw the car's steering wheel out, as he was sitting in the middle of a 120 mph corner with his car on fire. This was then run over by Karun Chandhok's Hispania. At the , he qualified fifteenth. Due to an overheating clutch at the start, he dropped down to 20th position. A poor pit stop failed to help his cause and he finished in fourteenth position. It was similar at the , when Barrichello again finished in fourteenth. He qualified eleventh, narrowly missing Q3 but his anti-stall system kicked in at the start of the race. After recovering well, he later collided with Jaime Alguersuari when Alguersuari came across too late to cover his line, the damage blocking Barrichello's left brake duct. In Valencia, the Williams team brought big upgrades and ran their version of the F-duct. Barrichello qualified ninth with the same time as his team-mate Hülkenberg. He was running seventh when the safety car was deployed at the end of lap nine, and pulled straight into the pits. When the safety car pitted he was able to fend off Kubica to finish fourth, his highest finish so far of the season. Post-race, nine cars were investigated for speeding under the safety car, and were later given a five-second penalty. This made no difference to Barrichello's position, and he became the highest-scoring Brazilian driver in Formula One history, overhauling Ayrton Senna's career tally of 614 points, that Barrichello had been tied on since the . He added further points to his total with fifth at Silverstone, and tenth in Hungary, with a twelfth at Hockenheim in between. Barrichello celebrated his 300th Grand Prix at the , but retired in damp conditions after colliding with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari on the first lap. Before the race, he was elected as Chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association to replace the outgoing Nick Heidfeld. At Monza, he qualified in tenth, and had a rather lonely run in the race to finish in the same place to score another point. In Singapore, the FW32 sported a new front wing, and Barrichello put this to good use to set the sixth fastest time in qualifying, although Williams technical director Sam Michael reckoned the car was fast enough to be a couple of positions higher. In the race despite losing places to Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg at the start, Barrichello had a solid run to sixth at the finish. In Japan, he qualified in a strong seventh, he raced strongly before fading to ninth as he was overtaken by the two Sauberstowardstheclosingstagesoftherace. It was later revealed that an apparent loss of grip he had suffered during the race was caused by a six per cent loss of downforce. In Korea he qualified tenth despite being blocked by Michael Schumacher. In a wet race he suffered heavy tyre wear on the intermediates that he was running on, and in the closing stages of the race he was passed by Robert Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi, dropping him to seventh place at the finish. At Interlagos he qualified a strong sixth in variable conditions with team-mate Hülkenberg starting from pole position. After a delayed pitstop, his traditional bad luck on home soil returned when he suffered a puncture after briefly colliding with Jaime Alguersuari, costing him any chance of scoring points. In Abu Dhabi he again qualified strongly in seventh place, and maintained that position shortly after the start. However when the safety car was deployed following Michael Schumacher's and Vitantonio Liuzzi's crash, many drivers like Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg took advantage of this by pitting early. This had a negative effect as they did not need to pit again, and Barrichello finished outside of the points. Complete Formula One results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Category:2010 Drivers Category:Driver Reports Category:Williams F1 Drivers